It was all my fault. If I hadn't been so interfering, Ginny wouldn't have been upset. There would have been no reason for Ron to look after her, and he would've been with Harry. So Mr Weasley was dying, because of me.

As soon as Hermione told me I ran straight to the owlerly, grabbing parchment and a pen on the way.

Ginny, I wrote.
I've just heard. How is he? Is everyone ok? Are you Ok?
I'm sorry about last night. You were right, I shouldn't have interfered.
Write if you need anything. Hermione and I are here for you all.

I called Hedwig down and tied the letter to her leg.
"To Ginny please." She stared at me blankly before hopping over to the arch and flying away.

I walked slowly back up to the castle and went to the entrance hall. It was empty. I panicked slightly but then remembered it was a school day and they would all be in lessons. I also remembered that I was still in my pyjamas.

Shrugging, I made my way to the kitchens. It was in full swing when I arrived as the house elves were busy preparing dinner.

"Is there anything Drippy can do for you miss?" a little house elf house ask soon as I walked in.

"Is Dobby here?"
She shook her head. "Dobbie is tending to Winky miss. She has been drinking butterbeer again." the other house elves made more noise when she said this, not wanting outsiders to discover her disgrace.

"Do you have any toast?" I asked. She seated me at a small table and then returned a few minutes later with toast and a glass of water.

I really didn't know what to do. I didn't feel like going to class. I had Umbridge, Snape and that Grubbly-Plank woman today. I couldn't stomach any of those lessons. It's the last day, i wouldn't miss anything important.

Hedwig suddenly appeared from down the chimney and landed on the table. I quickly untied the letter from her leg and opened it. The writing was snugged and tear stained. It broke my heart.

Ally
I don't know. They say there's a good chance he's going… there was a large scribbling out.
I just wish that he was awake so I

A large gap was left and then the handwriting changed.

Ginny's too upset to write, so she's told me to do it. (It's Fred by the way)
Mums in absolute bits, she doesn't leave his side. She hasn't eaten anything since yesterday.
Bill and Charlie are here. They wanted to see him one last time.

There was a large teardrop smudging the last words.

We'll let you know if there's any progress. Don't have too much fun at Hogwarts without us.

He had drawn a kiss at the end. There was a little arrow which pointed to it that read: Ginny made me do it.
Despite the situation I smiled slightly.

I looked to Hedwig and saw her pecking at my toast. I ripped her a piece off and the shooed her away.

I checked my watch and saw that the next lesson started in ten minutes. If I got to the common room quickly, I wouldn't have to face anyone in my pyjamas.

I thanked the house elves and ran up to the Gryffindor Common Room. I stayed in there all day and the next morning I was up early, eager to get on the train.

As I was early, I had about twenty minutes in Hogsmede to buy last minute presents.

On the train, I sat in a compartment with Luna, Neville, Hermione, Dean and Seamus. He was wanted to talk but I mainly ignored him. I felt bad, but I just needed time alone with my thoughts.

I practically ran off the train when we arrived at Kings Cross. I gave Seamus a quick goodbye kiss and then ran through the barrier with Hermione. As planned Tonks was waiting for us.

She gave each of us a hug before holding our hands and apparating to Grimmauld Place.
It was an awful, unpleasant feeling. Both Hermione and I stumbled as we landed in the dark dreary hallway.

"Everyone's in the Kitchen," Tonks said quietly. We nodded and made our way down.

Leaning outside the door to the basement was Sirius. He smiled slightly as he saw us and hugged me tightly.
"It's bad down there," he said, his face solemn. I nodded at him curtly and made my way down. The others followed.

I opened the door slowly and poked my head in.
Harry, Ron, Ginny, the Twins and a red head I didn't know (my guess was Charlie) were all sitting at the table in silence.

"Hey," I said softly. Ginny ran over to Hermione and me and hugged us tightly, erupting into tears.
We hugged her back whispering comforting words to her.

"He'll be fine," I whispered strongly.
"How do you know," she sobbed.

"Would I lie about something like this?" I realised that my choice of words were poor, but I was never any good with emotions.

"Yes," Sirius muttered, trying to lighten the mood but failing miserably. "You lie about everything."
I glared at him blankly.
"You know that place I showed you on the roof?" He nodded. "Yeah, go jump off it."

He glared at me for a moment for disappearing back upstairs with Tonks.
Hermione had pealed herself away from us and was now comforting Ron and Harry. I smiled meekly at the twins and went over to the other Weasley.

"You must be Charlie?" I asked. He nodded.
"And you're Ally. I must say I've heard quite a lot about you." He looked sad and drained. In true Ally tradition I gave him a hug.

"I'm sorry we couldn't meet on lighter conditions," I whispered in his ear quietly.
"I know it's just so awful. Mum still hasn't left his side."

I looked to Fred and George who had the same look of brokenness as everyone else. Their cunning grins were gone and replaced with nothing.

"And how are you guys?" I asked them. I know that asking the same questions wasn't helping, but I needed to know. I had a feeling that these two were just being left, and had no one to talk to.
They were the light hearted members of the family; people would think that they wouldn't be suffering as much. But they were.

"I just... Don't know what to think," George said.
"What have the doct - I mean healers said?" I asked Charlie. He would probably know more than the others.

"They've tried everything. Potions, spells, even those Muggle stitches, but nothings working. The venoms too strong."

Tears began to form in Ginny's eyes again and Charlie put his arm around her. It was such an awful sight. They were all so happy, strong and kind. They didn't deserve this.
An idea suddenly popped into my mind.

"Have they tried a skin graft?" I asked, wondering if I had used the correct terminology.
"A what?" Ron asked, speaking for the first time. I looked at Hermione and could see the cogs turning in her eyes.

"It's another Muggle remedy," I explain. "They take skin from one part of the body, like the leg or something and then put it over the womb. The stitches will be around the womb so the venom won't dissolve them."

They all stared at me confused, but with a small amount of hope forming in their eyes. I looked to Hermione again and saw her beaming.

"But won't he have a huge patch of skin missing from his leg?" Ron asked.
"No," Charlie butted in excitedly. "They can heal that fine, there's no venom there!"

He jumped up excitedly and grabbed my face. He gave me a large kiss on my mouth before grabbing his coat.
"You are a genius," he beamed happily. I waved my arm pretending to be embarrassed. "I'm going to the St Mungo's. I'll be back soon."

He turned on the spot and disapperated.

:-:

It was over three hours later before a loud crack was heard upstairs, signalling a new arrival.
We all sat up as the door opened and Bill walked in.

I have to say he put my double lobed/cartilage/rook pierced ears to shame. His hair was long and he wore a brown faded leather jacket. Harry's description in Goblet of Fire fit him perfectly. He had to be one of the coolest people I had ever seen.

"Well?" Fred asked desperately.
Bill broke out into a large grin. "He's not out of the woods yet, but it seems to be working and he's on the mend."

They all let out a cry of relief and hugged each other. I did too.
I felt so guilty about the whole thing, and if he had died, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself.

"You can't go see him tomorrow," Bill continued. "Even mums being kicked out. But we're allowed on Christmas day."

My stomach suddenly rumbled loudly. I smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry. I haven't eaten in..." I looked at my watch. "Fourteen hours. Wow, how did I last so long?" I asked myself quietly.

"Tonks is going to get muggle take out," Bill told us. I grinned. I loved the home cooked meals at Hogwarts, but I liked my greasy food.

I hadn't had pizza since the day after I arrived. So you can imagine how happy I was when Remus and Tonks walked in with three large pizzas. I practically dove on top of them to get them.

"This tastes amazing," I said, folding a piece in half and shoving it in my mouth.
"Leave some for me," Ron said, shoving me out the way slightly and grabbing a piece. I was already on my third.

"Hey Ron, don't be greedy," Bill scolded. "If it weren't for Ally, dad would have died."

I looked down in embarrassment. If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't be in that predicament.
"To Ally," Remus said, raising up his pizza slice. They all mirrored him.

"To Ally."

I grimaced. As soon as I had finished eating i made an excuse and went straight to bed.

:-:

Christmas morning just made me feel even guiltier. Everyone still was giving me the praise and attention I didn't deserve and to make it worse, a new factor was added: presents.

It started off not too bad. Sirius, Remus and Tonks had all chipped in and brought me new clothes. I could barely contain my excitement when I saw them. Tonks had chosen them and she had very good taste.

I received sweets off Harry, Ron and Hermione, a bracket off Ginny, various WWW products off the twins and... A Weasley jumper!

I've always wanted one, and I almost broke down into tears when I saw the red jumper with a large golden 'A' stitched on to it.

But then Bill and Charlie had to go ruin it.

"We've all chipped in and brought you this as a thank you." Charlie came in the room with a beautiful shiny new broom stick. I was sure I saw Cleansweap written on the side. I shook my head furiously.

"No," I said sternly. "There is no way I'm excepting this."
"But you saved our dads life," Charlie said.

"No I didn't!" I had to lower my tone as I sounded really angry. "Did I physically do the operation? No. I just suggested something they would've figured out anyway. It's not that I'm not grateful; But if you Want to give me a good Christmas present, Then forget about the whole thing."

They stared at me with a look of admiration in their eyes. I had a feeling the Ally Appreciation Group had just grown stronger.

"What about the broom?" George asked. I took it from Bill and gave it to Ginny.
"My present to you really sucked so..." i trailed off. "You can try out for quidditch next year."

She took it off me, smiled, and then handed it back to Bill.
"No, we'll just return it. I told them you would take it."

"Of course not. If you haven't noticed, I'm extremely humble and reserved."
They all laughed at my ridiculous comment.

Just before lunch, we left for St Mungo's. We must have looked odd. A pink haired woman, a man with one leg, a bunch of red heads and some random teenagers, all wearing matching jumpers, standing outside a dodgy warehouse talking to a mannequin; but no one gave us a second look.

As soon as the Weasley's saw their dad awake, they leapt onto the bed and began to hug him. Tonks, Mad Eye, Harry, Hermione and I all waited outside and watched the scene from the door.

"Come in," Mr Weasley called to us hoarsely. We smiled at him and stepped forward a micro step.

"I want to thank Harry and Ally. Without them I would not be here." and then they all clapped. They clapped. No lie.

I stood awkwardly blushing while Harry did the same next to be. I had a feeling the appreciation group had a new leader.

Mr Weasley called us over and thanked us again.
"And I also want to thank you and Hermione for the card," he said. "It was really enjoyable to wake up to that."

The night before we left Hogwarts was a hard one. Both Hermione and I were restless so we made a card featuring cartoon versions of all of us, including a black dog to represent Sirius. Hermione had cast an animation spell on it, so the characters all danced around a recovered Mr Weasley.

The non-order members of our group were all shooed out for a moment and made to sit outside.

They all eavesdropped while I did a crossword puzzle in an old Witch Weekly. After deeming it too hard, i put it down and stood up.

"Anyone want to go exploring?" I asked. Neville would be around here somewhere, and I was dying to wish him a merry Christmas.

As we walked up to the tea room on the fifth floor, I saw him through the window of the Janus Thicking Ward.

"Look," I said, nudging Harry. "Neville."
They all looked through the window and then gasped.
"Lockheart!" Hermione exclaimed, pointing to the blonde wizard who was 'aeroplane-ing' jelly in his mouth.

Fred laughed loudly and then went inside.
The whole ward turned to look at us as we entered. A healer shushed us, as though laughter was not allowed.

"Neville!" Ron called waving at the boy in the corner. Neville shyly looked up at us and his gran pushed him towards us.
"Go say hello to your friends dear," she said bossily.

Neville sauntered over to us and gave an embarrassed smile.
"Hey guys, are-are you visiting?"

"Yeah our dad, are you?" Ginny asked, not having any idea that his mother was sitting just yards away.

"Erm - Yeah, my parents. They were tortured, and now they're here," he said sadly. Hermione looked as though she was about to cry.

"Oh Neville, we had no idea. I'm so sorry."
"It's ok," he said shyly.

The pretty blonde witch in a White nighty came over to Neville and handed him a sweet wrapper.
"Erm - Thanks mum."

She nodded at him and then looked at us, her eyes passing each one of us in turn. She stopped at me and gasped, her eyes growing wide.

"Hello, Mrs. Longbottom. I'm Ally, a friend of your sons."

She began to mumble under her breath, still frozen in the same spot. She gave one last piercing look before collapsing to the ground, emitting loud screams.

The healers ran over to her and began muttering various spells while Neville watched helplessly from the side.

A hand suddenly grabbed my arm and yanked me out the room. It was Tonks. She was leading me back down the stairs to Mr Weasley's Room, a look of shock and horror on her face.

"Tonks, what's going on?" I asked pulling from her grip. "Is Mrs Longbottom ok?"
"I don't know," she muttered.

"Did I say something?" I was really confused as to why Mrs Longbottom acting that way.
"It's because you said son. She doesn't know she has one," Tonks said quickly.

I felt a pang of pity for Neville. His mom had no idea that he existed. He was just there, alone.

It wasn't until I was lying in bed the night before we went back to Hogwarts that I remembered two simple words that Neville had said.

"Thanks Mum"
She hadn't freaked out. She somehow knew that Neville was her son.

So what was it about me that had gotten her so freaked out?

Thanks for all the reviews last chapter: magical . Melody, Fallenarchangel, fruityloops156, ChaygraceDeya and 2featherbraids.
I have some free time in a few days so hopefully the chapters will be even quicker. In a few chapters, some of the confusing stuff will become clearer.
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think. If you get me to fifty I'll love you forever ;)